Surrey County Conservatives

2.5% increase lowest since Council Tax was introduced (11th February)

At the Full Council Meeting yesterday Surrey’s County Councillors set the lowest Council Tax since it was introduced in 1993.

Dr. Andrew Povey, Leader of Surrey County Council commented, “we pledged very early on in this administration that we would set a Council Tax increase of 2.5% and that is what we have done. We have had to balance the Council’s spending requirements, particularly as regards social care and schools, against the ability of our residents to pay for any increase – and we think that a 2.5% increase achieves that”.

David Hodge, Deputy Leader of Surrey County Council, who delivered the budget speech said, “the people of Surrey and our businesses have historically contributed an awful lot to the economy of this country yet they get very little back in terms of funding for local government services. This year, for instance, the government increase one area of our funding (the Formula Grant) by £1.9m but cut another (Area Based Grant) by £1.6m, which leaves us with only an extra £300,000. Whilst we understand that finances are tight at the moment, particularly in the public sector, this is pitiful increase that does the people of Surrey no favours at all.

Over the next few years this Council will have to build an additional 5,000 Primary School places and 1,000 Secondary School places, absorb the costs of the transfer of functions from the Learning & Skills Council, fund the costs of demographic pressures (we have more people living longer) and invest in our highways network. Miserly rises in government funding that amount to merely 26p per person per year simply won’t do.

It has been said that we are all sharing the pain of Gordon Brown’s recession, but Surrey appears to be enduring more than its fair share of pain. We see our residents get back far less from central government than they put in, we see £300m of business rates sent elsewhere in the country, we see inadequate funding for our schools, we see our highways network heavily used by people commuting through Surrey without seeing any accompanying funding and yet Surrey continues to contribute enormously to the national economy. The pressures on Surrey County Council are not getting any easier.

Nevertheless, we are dealing with these pressures, and balanced against this we are also taking concrete steps to reduce our costs by around £180m over the next four years in addition to dealing with these cost pressures. To that end I think a 2.5% Council Tax increase is reasonable but we are mindful that our residents need to see, and want to see, value for money and an efficient County Council”.

Dr. Povey added, “this budget shouldn’t be seen as a standalone budget. It is part of a four-year plan aimed at delivering value for money services at a standard our residents would expect”.